Written Blog

Ghost trails are a great tool for visualizing many of the tricks we play with as flow artists, regardless of the prop. Over the past few years, I've become acquainted with 5 different approaches for creating these trails using video post-production and I'm starting a video series exploring all these options. The first one is the Luminancer app for iOS--a useful app for creating LED or fire trails but one that comes with some pretty severe limitations. See my full video on the topic below:

My annual tradition returns! Free flowing in Washington, DC's beautiful Dupont Circle park with the fountain behind me as I play around with one-handed flow, dance/poi fusion, and frankly just trying to stay warm! It was 10 degrees out as I spun and the camera kept dying because the batteries wouldn't work in the cold.

When the Top 10 list launched in 2012, it was intended to be a way to celebrate the work of poi spinners all over the world, a method for acknowledging those who'd made an impact in the community. Since then I've come to think of it just as much as a historical document or time capsule of what the poi spinning community was like each year.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to have my path cross a gentleman whose work in the double staff world has been super inspiring to me in the past year. Casey Houle (JaFfi Tech on YouTube) and I ran around LA for a day trading ideas and filming what came out of it. Fun to work with a like mind--check out what we came up with :)

Zan Moore is one of the most talented and prolific spinners leading into the social media era of the Flow Arts. He has been a performer, teacher, festival organizer, and driver of ideas and information. In this interview, he shares the stories of his career milestones, how his outlook has changed over the years, and why the flow arts needs dedicated hobbyists.

Vulcan Tech Gospel is one of the most popular frameworks for understanding prop movement and transitions between tricks. It was created by residents of the Vulcan Lofts in Oakland, CA and has gone on to inspire countless studies, works of art, and even a smart phone app! In an effort to demystify this approach to studying prop movement, I put together this video that includes some awesome computer simulations and visual aids. Please note: this video only just scratches the surface of what's possible!

The flow arts community has seen an explosion in popularity in within the past 5 years and perhaps no metric is more telling of this expansion than the proliferation of festivals devoted to spinning and fire arts. As recently as 5 years ago, there were only 4 options to attend in the United States and this year there were nearly 50. As this aspect of our culture has continued to proliferate, however, it has generated with it a great deal of controversy as to what type of compensation those who contribute to it are entitled to.

Today's tutorial is on one of the less-performed antibrids, but still a personal favorite of mine: pendulum vs cateye. It's a helpful one to know because it includes transition points to go back and forth between isolation vs cateye, pendulum vs triquetra, and CAP vs pendulum--next week I'll cover the theory behind some of the transitions I use with these moves!

Profiles in Poi begins its 3rd season with Chris Kelly! Hailing from Eugene, OR, Chris made an explosive debut on the scene a couple years ago by being on the vanguard of the 3 poi and poi juggling movement. Here, he discusses how he entered the flow arts, the genesis of his company and Team Techris, and where he sees the future of the flow arts headed.

For the past three years, I've been collecting statistics every six months on the most popular poi channels I'm aware of to gauge interest and overall industry health. Last year, I expanded this survey to include Facebook likes and this year it's expanded to include Instagram followers as well. Overall, the industry picture is good with overall subscribers and views up since the same time last year.